According to multiple baseball sources, the Red Sox will hire Curt Young as their next pitching coach, with a formal announcement coming as soon as today. Young will replace John Farrell, who left the Red Sox last week to become the manager of the Toronto Blue Jays.

Young spent the last seven seasons as the pitching coach of the Athletics. During that time, the A’s have a 4.03 ERA that ranks as the best in the American League. The Oakland staff also had a 3.58 this year that led the American League.

Young announced just over a week ago that he would decline Oakland’s offer of a contract for 2011 in order to pursue other opportunities in the major leagues. He interviewed with the Sox last Monday, and immediately became a leading candidate for the position.

"Curt showed a remarkable ability to adapt and a flexibility to navigate different personalities and abilities,” “I think that’s probably his best attribute. Naturally, players respond differently to different stimuli, and Curt did an exemplary job of finding out how to motivate and reach individuals.”"

“We are lucky to be able to add an experienced pitching coach the caliber of Curt Young to the organization,” said Epstein. “Curt has a proven track record of success in this job, mixing excellent relationship-building skills with expert knowledge of pitching and how to get hitters out at the Major League level. Pitchers who have worked with Curt swear by him, and the results speak for themselves. We think he will work well with our pitching staff and within the culture of our clubhouse.”

"Curt showed a remarkable ability to adapt and a flexibility to navigate different personalities and abilities,” “I think that’s probably his best attribute. Naturally, players respond differently to different stimuli, and Curt did an exemplary job of finding out how to motivate and reach individuals.”"

It seems Craig Breslow is very well spoken.

Curt Young seems to have as promising a track record as any possibility not named Dave Duncan, so it is hard not to be optimistic about his future in Boston. Even accounting for the park, Oakland's pitching staff has been doing a lot with fairly marginal talent for years now on the pitching side of the ball. Hopefully, Young was a significant part of that and can bring that success with him to the Red Sox.

Curt Young seems to have as promising a track record as any possibility not named Dave Duncan, so it is hard not to be optimistic about his future in Boston. Even accounting for the park, Oakland's pitching staff has been doing a lot with fairly marginal talent for years now on the pitching side of the ball. Hopefully, Young was a significant part of that and can bring that success with him to the Red Sox.

Hopefully, he'll bring the 3-4-5 guys' performance back to some closer semblance of the potential that's there.

And if we change catchers, it will pretty much be impossible to tell how much of it was what. I'll predict right now that John Farrell will retroactively take some blame, and Young will get some credit, that should actually belong to Victor and (probably) Salty respectively.

Thanks for the link David, lots of good stuff in there. Couldn't agree more with him on that 1-1 pitch. The difference between going 1-2 vs 2-1 is huge... both mentally and statistically.

I also found the line about both his and the pitchers relationship with a catcher pretty apt giving how outspoken and positive Red Sox pitchers have been regarding Varitek:

DL: Is the relationship you have with the catchers on your team as important as your relationship with the pitching staff?

CY: Yeah, very much so. The catcher gains the trust of the pitcher, and the catchers gain trust from me with the scouting reports and how we’re going to attack hitters. It’s kind of a triangle there. We kind of all trust each other with what we’re trying to do, and if the catcher has a great understanding of the game plan and the pitcher can see that, and they get on the same page, then things can click. You’ll feel a nice little cycle going on out there.

And if we change catchers, it will pretty much be impossible to tell how much of it was what. I'll predict right now that John Farrell will retroactively take some blame, and Young will get some credit, that should actually belong to Victor and (probably) Salty respectively.

But does it matter what's what? The pitchers do their best to throw what the catchers put down, who do their best to call the game according to the coach's plan for the opposing team, which is informed by the tapes put together by the forward scouts.

As a gestalt, I would be glad of any improvements, even though as a fan I might not know where the source of the improvement is. While I really thought Farrell brought a lot of overall ability, I was never particularly impressed with his ability to diagnose mechanical problems because he seemed like more of a generalist - which brings its own benefits, but sometimes I do think the best option is a specialist.

With Young the Sox have a dedicated pitching guy. I like that, and hope they move in the direction of specialization with at least the 1B and hitting coaches, too.

While I really thought Farrell brought a lot of overall ability, I was never particularly impressed with his ability to diagnose mechanical problems because he seemed like more of a generalist - which brings its own benefits, but sometimes I do think the best option is a specialist.

John Farrell is indeed a generalist, and by all accounts and performance, a very good one. I'm surprised that he stayed so long as Boston's pitching coach -- there was some thought a few years ago that he was being groomed for a GM-level position in Boston. It seems likely that Theo and Tito are GM and manager for as long as they want to be, barring some improbable systemic collapse. Tito's health seems to have stabilized in the last two years.

Canada will like John Farrell very well, I think, and the Jays are lucky to get him.

Curt Young sounds like an excellent replacement with a good balance of mental and mechanical approaches. He's going to miss those expansive Coliseum foul grounds, though.

"Curt showed a remarkable ability to adapt and a flexibility to navigate different personalities and abilities. I think that’s probably his best attribute. Naturally, players respond differently to different stimuli, and Curt did an exemplary job of finding out how to motivate and reach individuals.”"

Not that quoting here has much to do with what I wanted to say, but that made me lol.

Anyway, I think it's a great hire. Curt Young was a good pitcher who, though he personally missed the playoffs, has a 1989 World Series ring. He had been with the A's since 1981 and except for a few stops at the end of his career hadn't been too many other places. I'm not sure why he wanted to move on, but I personally think he's gonna end up more successful than Farrell. He's got a real talented staff to work with.